Jason and I are spending a month in the SW part of the state, hoping to catch fall color at its peak.  
Here's what we've seen so far...
We rented a home in Montrose to be our base, it's a great central location for various places we wanted to explore: northeast is Crested Butte, south is Ouray/Silverton and southwest is the San Juan range and the Telluride area.  The vacation rental has been fantastic.  We've been working from home since March and our bosses were cool with us working a bit more remotely for the month :o)  Our first week in Montrose we worked from home and settled in.  It was a nice rest after the 6 and 1/2 hour drive from Denver.
Our vacation rental has a nice view of the golf course in one direction and, on clear days, several mountain ranges.  We've had lots of days that were hazy from the various forest fires, but were happy to get a glimpse of the mountains whenever the smoke cleared.  Not the best photo as it was taken with my phone, but you get the idea :o)
First day of vacation, Sat 9/26, drive south to Silverton
Our vacation started 9/26 which also happened to be my dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!  Thanks to a text from Sylvia (Jason's Aunt) we knew that the color was getting good down south near Silverton, so we headed out to see what we could see.  We spent the day driving what's known as the "Million Dollar Highway" (US 550) which is considered one of the most scenic drives in the US.  It's also a bit hair raising - there's a section just south of Ouray where there's sheer drops off the side of the road, and not really any shoulder to speak of (and no guard rails??!!)  Not my favorite part of the drive, but worth it for the views that I get to see once I stop shuddering ;o)

This trip is my first chance to try out my new camera, a Panasonic S1R.  I've always owned small-ish cameras - started out with point and shoots that easily fit in your hand and then moving up to a larger "bridge" camera a few years back.  "Bridge" meaning it's in between the compact point and shoots and the larger dslrs.  My bridge camera was one-piece (no interchangeable lenses), my new camera has a "body" and various lenses that attach to the body.
I had tried out a dslr on our trip to Australia and New Zealand last year by renting a Sony A7r iv.  It was quite the experience getting used to changing out the lenses and the WEIGHT of it all took a bit of adjustment!  But the quality of the photos was so much better, that I just couldn't go back to my bridge camera, hence this new one.
So please keep in mind - I'm still learning!  :o)
One of my favorite things about fall is walking through a forest with leaves covering the floor.  We stopped off the road, so Jason could fly his drone over the hillsides of aspens and I took a stroll around.  It was a bright gorgeous day, blue skies and sunshine.  I enjoyed seeing the sun hit the carpet of leaves on the forest floor.  This area is well known for various mines and I stumbled (not literally thank goodness) across some old wires and thought I'd play with depth of field to get to know my camera a bit better (depth of field refers to what's in focus, perhaps only the near part is in focus and the background is blurry, etc)

I also have a fondness for fallen leaves caught in evergreen branches and found this lil' guy who had a lovely orange color.
As I explored, I came across a peaceful scene with some pretty grasses in front of a fallen log and aspen trunks; I felt like I could sit there and relax for hours.  But then Jason would wonder where I'd disappeared to :o)  I also found a bit of water with leaves floating on top; I was happy that the wind was still enough to give a nice reflection.   
During my walk, I took in views of the interesting rugged cliffs across the valley.  Finally, various bushes have shown especially rich colors this year and I enjoyed the contrast of the orange bush to the yellow aspen. 
Probably my favorite photo spot of the day is below - we passed a waterfall off the side of the road while we were driving south and I made a note of the mile marker because I wanted to catch it on the way back.  I knew I'd need to take my tripod with me as it would allow me to do a long exposure shot which gives that classic "silky water" look.  Having the tripod with us was actually beneficial in another way: we had to walk back into the forest along the stream which was a bit tricky as the wet rocks were slippery.  We were able to use the tripod as a makeshift walking stick to help with those slick rocks :o)  We were able to rock hop most of the way, but to get to the spot for the best photo there was no option but to walk into the stream.  Well worth it for the photo, I think ;0)  Luckily, other than our feet, we (and the new camera!!) didn't end up in the REALLY COLD water :o)
I always feel a bit guilty putting in 2 photos of the same thing, but let me tell you - picking your "favorite" photo of certain things can be REALLY hard and sometimes it's just easier to include more than 1  :o)
Also - with this shot that's closer up, it's easier to see certain details.  Something I didn't notice until I got home and put the photos on my computer - you can see a yellow leaf caught in the water at the top left of the fall.  And just under that you can see a patch of moss growing in the space behind the waterfall... cool, huh? :o)
We definitely weren't the only folks taking advantage of the gorgeous fall day...
When I spotted this painter, I quietly approached and asked if it would be ok to take a photo with her in it; she was very friendly and graciously agreed.  I told her it made me smile to see her enjoying the day and I just loved her hat with it's cheerful green ribbon!
This area of the road is know for it's red mountains which get their color from the reddish iron ore rocks.
The hillsides of the drive from Ridgway (just south of Montrose) to Silverton are littered with old buildings like the one below; I especially like the rich brown color.  This one happened to be behind a marker for what I assume is a ranch name, so I had some fun with the cut out letters.
Ohio Pass Road Drive, Gunnison to Crested Butte, Monday 9/28/20
On Monday (my mother-in-law's birthday - Happy Birthday Linda!), we decided to head east to Gunnison then north on Ohio Pass Road to Crested Butte and check out various drives in the Crested Butte area... of course, things don't always go to plan.  :o)
We stopped in Gunnison at one of our favorite coffee shops that we found last time we were in the area: Tributary Coffee.  They have AMAZING hot cider, hot cocoa and chai tea lattes.  Perfect for fall weather!
Next we headed up Ohio Pass road.  We saw a coyote off the side of the road... I wasn't able to get my camera out and ready very quickly so didn't get the best shot, but was nice to see!
The colors were looking good and I especially liked how the blue sky showed through the aspen trunks of this group on top of the hill.
At one of our stops, I wandered down to a stream and found a bunch of fish hanging out :o)
I think these are trout, each was about 7-8 inches long.
What Ohio Pass Road is most known for is the rock formation called The Castles.
It was a little hazy but not too bad and we got a pretty good view of them.
I love the wispy watercolor-like clouds behind them :o)
Unfortunately, our day ended with this road.  Shortly after we turned off Ohio Pass Road onto Kebler Pass Road, we got a flat tire.  There was a hole in the sidewall and we had to put on the spare.  Ok - "we" isn't really correct, Jason did all the work although I did help out by finding a nice flat rock to put under the jack!  ;o)
Driving on dirt roads with a spare didn't sound like a smart plan so we took the highway over to Grand Junction to get a new tire.  By the way, not to sound like an ad - we've used Discount Tire for years now and I continue to be amazed at their service.  We knew we'd be cutting it close getting to their store by closing at 6pm but they assured us over the phone that it was ok and they'd take care of us.  And they certainly did, fantastic customer service and friendly attitudes.  I made a point to call their boss and email their corporate office to let them know Cole and Brian took such good care of us.  Getting a flat on vacation isn't great, but at least it didn't cost us an arm and a leg - we'd purchased certificates for $21 each for the tires when we got them last year just in case something like this happened (we tend to be tough on the Escape's tires, taking it on lots of 4x4 roads).  So instead of buying a new $150 tire, we paid $25 and were good to go!

All in all, still a great day out taking in the gorgeous Colorado scenery with the best road trip buddy one could ever ask for.  And don't worry - we made it back to the area on another day and drove the roads we wanted to do.  But that's for another entry, this one is long enough :o)
As always, thanks for visiting!
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